In food processing sanitation, Log Reduction is a term used to identify the effectiveness of a sanitizer. The higher the Log number the better that product is at reducing pathogen colony forming units (CFUs). For example, a product with a kill claim of 99.99% is Log 4, while a product with a kill claim of 99.9999% is Log 6. Log 6 is 100 times better at reducing CFUs than Log 4, so if you start with a contaminated area containing 1,000,000 CFUs, the Log 6 product will reduce the CFUs down to 1 (one colony forming unit) whereas the product with Log 4 will only reduce that initial 1,000,000 CFUs down to 100. In other words, there are potentially 100 CFUs still remaining that can multiply every 20 minutes until you have a real problem. To better protect your plant from cross-contamination, choose hand and surface sanitizers with the highest Log number available. For more information on Log Reduction Click Here to download the Quick Guide to Log Reduction PDF.